Consideration to Approve the Purchase of Replacement Traffic Signal Preemption Devices Project T 1008. City of Culver City California City Council Agenda Item Report Meeting Date: 05/22/06 AGENDA ITEM: Consideration to Approve the Purchase of Replacement Traffic Signal Preemption Devices Project T 1008 Item Number: A 8 Contact Persons/Dept.: Elaine Jeng/PW Max Paetzold/PW Fiscal Impact: Yes Public Hearing: Public Notification: Master Notification List 5/18/06 and Chief Jeff Eastman on May 11 2006 Phone Number: (310) 253 5621 (310) 253 5613 General Fund: Yes No X Attachments: X X No Action Item: X Department Approval: Charles D. Herbertson 5/11/06 City Controller Approval: Marlee Chang 5/17/06 RECOMMENDATION: CAO Approval: Jerry Fulwood 5/18/06 Staff recommends that the City Council approve the purchase of traffic signal preemption devices for 46 intersections for Capital Improvement Project T 1008. BACKGROUND: Traffic signal preemption devices give priority to emergency vehicles such as fire police and also buses. The City has been utilizing preemption device for more than 20 years for fire vehicles only. All devices were purchased from the manufacturer 3M. Preemption devices are comprised of three components: a detection unit on top of traffic signal heads connection wires from the detection unit to the traffic signal controller and discriminator cards to program the traffic controller. As fire vehicles approach an intersection equipped with the preemption device the strobe light atop fire vehicles would emit a signal at a particular frequency readable by the detection unit. The detection unit then sends the information through the connection wires to the traffic controller. Based on the information programmed in the discriminator card the signal would change its signal timing to accommodate the approaching emergency vehicle. Preemption devices reduce the amount of traffic accidents between emergency and commuter vehicles as well as reduce response time. Many of th...
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